SEPTEMBER 5th 2020
Kyle Walker said he takes "full blame" after being sent off in the England game and hoped it did not mark the end of his international career!!
The Manchester City full-back, 30, returned to the side that day, having missed the previous six internationals. He received a second yellow card in the win against Iceland for a lunging tackle. Walker said he will talk to boss Gareth Southgate about his England future.
Southgate said the red card put his team "in a really difficult situation". Already on a yellow card and with the ball running loose, Walker recklessly jumped in on Arnor Traustason to become only the 14th player to be sent off for England.
Walker became banned for the next game against Denmark in Copenhagen and faced a tough task to get back into the side as he competed for a right-back spot with Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold and Atletico Madrid's Kieran Trippier. City team-mate Raheem Sterling earned England a late win in their opening Nations League game with a 90th minute winner from the penalty spot!!
Walker was only the 14th player to be sent off for England.
A distraught-looking Walker told Sky Sports: "To get sent off for your country is never a nice moment especially after being out of the team for so long and being on 49 caps. I have to take the full blame. To make a rash challenge like that is not acceptable. I don't blame the pressure, I am a seasoned professional and I should know how to manage a game. You have to say fair play to the lads for digging in and fighting and getting the win. Hopefully I will be back. I have to talk to the boss and see what he wants to do. I am more than happy to say I want to be around the team. I have missed it."
Southgate in no mood for niceties Walker was the first player sent off in Southgate's four-year reign, with Sterling the previous red card for the Three Lions in a friendly against Ecuador in 2014.
England were fortunate to escape with all three points after defender Joe Gomez conceded an injury-time penalty, which Birkir Bjarnason blazed wide. Southgate was clearly unhappy with Walker, saying after the game: "We all have to learn from that incident in the game because we have gone out of tournament before when we have been down to 10 men. "That is not the situation I have had in the time I have been in charge so the response to it from the rest of the team was good. It put us in a really difficult situation. I liked the character to respond to the setbacks that we had. The obvious lessons are the red card, you can't make challenges like that. Kyle has spoken about it and held his hands up in the dressing room but being down to 10 men makes life so difficult to win matches. To win with 10 was commendable for the attitude of the players and coping with a that situation."
BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty said: Walker was a surprise selection by England manager Gareth Southgate for the Nations League games with Iceland and Denmark when it looked like his international career was behind him.
Southgate reinforced his renewed faith in the Manchester City defender by handing him a starting place in Iceland - his reward was an unwise challenge and second yellow card that must ask old questions about Walker's international career. Walker's second challenge on Traustason was reckless in the extreme with 20 minutes left and England struggling to break down a typically stubborn Iceland. Southgate was clearly unimpressed.
Walker will know he has blotted his copybook when he could least afford it, with Trippier still a trusted member of Southgate's squad - selflessly working on the left side in Iceland - while Liverpool's Alexander-Arnold is edging back towards full fitness and is widely regarded as one of the best young right-backs in world football. Manchester United's Aaron Wan-Bissaka provides further competition so Walker will have know he needed to be more or less faultless to take advantage of an unlikely chance to rekindle his England career. He wore the look of a man who may have damaged that opportunity and must hope Southgate is in a benevolent mood otherwise his sending off could prove very expensive when measured against his England future.
Chris Waddle on Radio 5 Analysis says: Overall you have to say England, with the possession they had, did not create enough and they did not move the ball quick enough. They were not positive enough. It's a good three points for England. They look a bit rusty and hopefully they will improve on that performance on Sunday. England fell short in terms of breaking Iceland down. Iceland will probably think they deserved a draw and England have to improve. It just wasn't good enough tonight.
Last night Kyle Walker, earning his 49th cap, joined the illustrious list of England's International footballers who have been sent off when playing for England. It was Southgate's first dismissal under his control. The Manchester City right back (at the time) was shown a yellow cardin the first half for an untimely tackle and then reeived a second card towards the end of the game after a flying tackle on Arnor Traustason. The dismissal has made England's job even harder as they struggled to break down a stubborn Iceland side, with the score at 0-0. It was Walker's first game for the Three Lions for over a year, with his last appearance coming in the Nations third place play-off victory against Switzerland on June 9 2019.
Walker had been absent from all of Gareth Southgate's squads until the current international break as the England manager desired to try other players in the position, namely Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold. The red card will come as a blow to the 29-year-old's hopes of winning his 50th England cap, as he will be suspended for Tuesday's match against Denmark. England's blushes were spared right on 90 minutes as Walker's City teammate Raheem Sterling scored from the penalty spot to finally break down the home side's defensive wall. But Iceland should have equalised almost immediately afterwards, firing their own spot-kick over the bar. Gareth Southgate selected Phil Foden in his starting 11, playing in a three-man midfield alongside Southampton's James Ward-Prowse and West Ham's Declan Rice.
Since the first international in any country, this in England in 1872, there had been no record of an English player taking a walk until Alan Mullery was dismissed on June 5th 1968 playing against Yugoslavia in a European Championship Finals tie in the 90th minute in Firenze, Italy!! Opposition players and especially, Trivic spent the whole game kicking English players with no reprimand from the ref. When he raked Mullery's legs from behind, Alan (a serious Christian, I have to add), kicked him in the "how's your fathers". Should have left it to the tunnel. England lost 0-1 in their 424th match-the semi-final! Alf Ramsey paid Mullery's fine of £50 presented by the FA!!
he next England player sent off was also in June: 6/6/73: Alan Ball v Poland lost 0-2 World Cup Quals. 76th minute in Chorzow 12/6/77 Trevor Cherry v Argentina 1-1 Friendly, 83rd minute in La Bombonera 6/6/86 Ray Wilkins v Morocco 0-0 World Cup Finals, 43rd minute in Monterrey 30/6/98 David Beckham v Argentina (that viscious kick) 2-2 (lost on pens) WCF, 47th St-Etienne 5/9/98 Paul Ince v Sweden 1-2 European CQuals 67th minute, Stockholm 3/6/99 Paul Scholes v Sweden 0-0 European CQ 51th minute, Wembley 8/9/99 David Batty v Poland 0-0 European CQ 84th minute. Warsaw 16/10/02 Alan Smith v Macedonia 2-2 European Cp 90+2 minute. Southampton 8/10/05 David Beckham (2nd time) v Austria 1-0 World Cup Qual 59th minute Old Trafford 1/7/06 Wayne Rooney v Portugal 3-1 LOST on pens World Cup Finals 62nd minute. Gelsenkirchen 10/10/09 Robert Green v Ukraine 0-1 World Cup P 13th minute. Dnipro Arena 7/10/11 Wayne Rooney (2nd time) v Montenegro 2-2 European CQ 73rd minute. Podgorica 11/9/12 Steven Gerrard v Ukraine 1-1 World Cup Qual 88th minute. Wembley 4/6/14 Rahim Sterling v Ecudaor 2-2 Friendly 79th minute. Sunlife Stadium Miami.
I have known a famous football club's officials, so distressed by the embarrassment of having a player sent off (I believe the first ever in history) that a full club committee greeted the dismissed player as he left the field, with his home clothes in a bundle and didn't let him return to the changing room. He was banished!! You won't guess the club....... Well you might?............yep, the true amateurs.....The Corinthian Casuals!
